Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice
In sea ice, interconnected pockets and channels of brine are surrounded by fresh ice. Over time, brine is lost by gravity drainage and flushing. The timing of salt release and its interaction with the underlying water can impact subsequent sea ice melt. Turbulence measurements 1 m below melting sea...
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ftunivbergen:oai:bora.uib.no:1956/16780 2023-05-15T14:22:57+02:00 Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice Peterson, Algot Kristoffer 2017 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1956/16780 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 eng eng European Geosciences Union Mixing processes in the changing Arctic Ocean urn:issn:1812-0806 https://hdl.handle.net/1956/16780 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 cristin:1482891 Attribution CC BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Copyright the author(s) 2017 Ocean Science Discussions (OSD) Journal article 2017 ftunivbergen https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 2023-03-14T17:42:19Z In sea ice, interconnected pockets and channels of brine are surrounded by fresh ice. Over time, brine is lost by gravity drainage and flushing. The timing of salt release and its interaction with the underlying water can impact subsequent sea ice melt. Turbulence measurements 1 m below melting sea ice north of Svalbard reveal anti-correlated heat and salt fluxes. From the observations, 131 salty plumes descending from the warm sea ice are identified, confirming previous observations from a Svalbard fjord. The plumes are likely triggered by oceanic heat through bottom melt. Calculated over a composite plume, oceanic heat- and salt fluxes during the plumes account for 6% and 9% of the total fluxes, respectively, while only lasting in total 0.5% of the time. The observed salt flux accumulates to 7.6 kg m−2, indicating nearly full desalination of the ice. Bulk salinity reduction between two nearby ice cores agree with accumulated salt fluxes to within factor of two. The increasing fraction of younger, more saline ice in the Arctic suggests an increase in desalination processes with the transition to the ’new Arctic’. submittedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Sea ice Svalbard University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) Arctic Svalbard |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) |
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ftunivbergen |
language |
English |
description |
In sea ice, interconnected pockets and channels of brine are surrounded by fresh ice. Over time, brine is lost by gravity drainage and flushing. The timing of salt release and its interaction with the underlying water can impact subsequent sea ice melt. Turbulence measurements 1 m below melting sea ice north of Svalbard reveal anti-correlated heat and salt fluxes. From the observations, 131 salty plumes descending from the warm sea ice are identified, confirming previous observations from a Svalbard fjord. The plumes are likely triggered by oceanic heat through bottom melt. Calculated over a composite plume, oceanic heat- and salt fluxes during the plumes account for 6% and 9% of the total fluxes, respectively, while only lasting in total 0.5% of the time. The observed salt flux accumulates to 7.6 kg m−2, indicating nearly full desalination of the ice. Bulk salinity reduction between two nearby ice cores agree with accumulated salt fluxes to within factor of two. The increasing fraction of younger, more saline ice in the Arctic suggests an increase in desalination processes with the transition to the ’new Arctic’. submittedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Peterson, Algot Kristoffer |
spellingShingle |
Peterson, Algot Kristoffer Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
author_facet |
Peterson, Algot Kristoffer |
author_sort |
Peterson, Algot Kristoffer |
title |
Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
title_short |
Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
title_full |
Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
title_fullStr |
Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Observations of brine plumes below Arctic sea ice |
title_sort |
observations of brine plumes below arctic sea ice |
publisher |
European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1956/16780 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Sea ice Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Sea ice Svalbard |
op_source |
Ocean Science Discussions (OSD) |
op_relation |
Mixing processes in the changing Arctic Ocean urn:issn:1812-0806 https://hdl.handle.net/1956/16780 https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 cristin:1482891 |
op_rights |
Attribution CC BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Copyright the author(s) 2017 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-2017-27 |
_version_ |
1766295459301687296 |